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The Wednesday service begins at 6 with an extended prayer time, followed by worship songs such as "When I Think about the Lord," with its chorus, "It makes me want to shout, Hallelujah, thank you, Jesus" echoing through the sanctuary. The choir, the band, and the congregation stand, sway, and lift their hands as they sing. Finally, Meeks steps to the translucent lectern, his well-worn Bible in one hand and a long legal pad with his handwritten sermon in the other.

Tonight's sermon is an unapologetic gospel presentation, based on Ephesians 2. Drawing an analogy from personal computing, Meeks tells his congregation you can't just enter any screen name and gain access to God. You can only gain access in the name of Jesus.

For the next 45 minutes, with humor and fiery oratory, the stocky minister hammers home the message. Can't find your calling in life? You need Jesus. Can't find happiness in your relationship? You need Jesus. Tried every religion under the sun—Islam, Buddhism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Hare Krishna—and still can't find peace? You need Jesus.

Every service ends with two altar calls—one for people who want to accept the Lord, the other for people who are "ready to come home" and become members of the church. Tonight's service ends with dozens of people coming forward during both altar calls.

The second altar call reflects one theme of Meeks's ministry: Everyone has a job to do in the church. Meeks says too many believers miss God's calling in life, convinced that God blesses them solely for their own benefit. "Once people discover that their spiritual gift is really not for them, they don't really want it," Meeks preaches. "If they don't get to play with it, if they don't get to make money with it, if they don't get to lord over other people because they've got it, they don't want it. The reason the Bible says he gave some to be apostles, and prophets, teachers, evangelists, is for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry."

Meeks has never been shy about challenging people to put their gifts to work for the kingdom. Just ask Veronica Abney. She was living the American Dream, with "a house in the suburbs, two kids, a dog, and a husband," she says. She also had a corporate information technology job to die for. She worked for IBM on a team that managed IT accounts—her main client was Sears. Abney enjoyed a corner office, quarterly bonuses, and junkets to Palm Springs and San Diego. The future looked bright.

Then one Friday afternoon in January 1997, she received a call from Pastor Meeks.

"I was just a member of the church," Abney says. "I didn't even think he knew my number."

Meeks offered her a job as church administrator, to run the day-to-day operations of the congregation.

"Veronica," he said, "I want you to give up corporate America and come to work for the kingdom."

"You must be crazy," Abney told him before hanging up.

"I thought: Here I am, working for one of the top computer giants, working for one of the top retailers, and he wants me to give all of this up and come work in Roseland," she says. "He must think I flip burgers for a living."

But Abney says she heard something else in his offer: a call from God. Though working at a church was "never, ever" something she had considered before, she found herself thinking about coming to work at Salem.

About the same time, IBM began allowing employees to take a one-year leave of absence for "once in a lifetime" opportunities. This was just the safety net Abney needed to accept the offer—and the 50 percent cut in pay that went with it.

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February 2004, Vol. 48, No. 2